CAPA WORLD

Payton Meyer is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Strategic Communication major at  University of Colorado Boulder, she is studying abroad in Florence this semester.

In this week's post, Payton visits Venice with her CAPA friends and shares some moments from this experience.

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This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to do an overnight stay in Venice with a few friends that I’ve met here through CAPA. We attended CAPA’s My Global City advising event on Friday morning, to sign up for various volunteer activities such as English teaching or meeting with an Italian family once a week (the GANZO program), and then made our way over to the Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station around 2:30pm to catch a train into the city. The train was about 2 hours long, and had WiFi and phone chargers. About halfway through, we got an email from our Airbnb host to let us know that our place had been flooded earlier that morning, and that we were getting upgraded to stay in his bed and breakfast in Lido, just outside of Venice, instead! So, as soon as we got off the long train ride, we took a boat taxi for 30 minutes to Lido, and strolled around the less crowded, more spacious streets of the sand bar. We had a lovely seafood pasta dinner, walked around a bit, and headed back to the B&B for a little R&R before our big day in the heart of Venice.

Made it to Venice!

The smell of toast and croissants woke us up the next morning, and we enjoyed breakfast in the quaint dining room of the B&B accompanied by a family of 3 from Spain that we practiced our Spanish with. After taking a nice walk along the Lido coastline and feeling the sand between our toes, we hopped back onto the boat taxi and headed into the city.

Maya Crawford is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Business Administration major at  University of Massachusetts Lowell, she is studying abroad in Barcelona this semester.

In this week's post, Maya shares her experience from the National Day of Catalonia and what she learned about its local significance.

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My city for this semester is, of course, Barcelona, and in this blog post I will talk about an event that went way beyond my expectations. It is about the National Day of Catalonia, a day where people come together and peacefully protest for the independence of Catalonia. Our accommodation is very close to the center of Barcelona, which was perfect for us because we were located right at the beginning of the parade.

The crowd cheering all at once and waving their flags for independence.

As soon as we left our apartment, we saw a sea of people covered in red and yellow clothing, flags, and face paint! Back home in Boston there have been protests, parades, celebrations, and more, but I have never seen anything quite like this. Aerial views of the gathering showed so many people, some said there was almost a million out in the streets—and I believe that wasn’t an exaggeration.

Casey Rhode is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. An Interdisciplinary Studies major at Arizona State University, she is studying abroad in Dublin this semester.

In this week's post, Casey shares her first thoughts about Dublin and the places she's visited so far in this global city.

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I’m looking down and I see green, tons and tons of green…until I land and walk into the city where it’s buildings upon buildings, all shapes, sizes, and colors. In my first week in the city of Dublin I have been fully immersed and I’m loving every moment of it.

I have been blessed with three amazing roommates, one even from Arizona State University like me! We all get along and have similar ideas of how we want to keep the apartment and where to travel throughout the semester. We’ve set a goal of 3-4 places besides Ireland to travel to, so we’ll see if we can accomplish that while also attending classes and internships.

Connor McGlone is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing his story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Marketing and Supply Chain Management major at  University of Pittsburgh, he is studying abroad in Florence this semester.

In this week's post, Connor shares the differences he's observed between his Florence apartment and apartments he's had in the US, as well as what he's doing to adjust to living like a local.

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Living in a flat in Florence has been a completely new living experience for me. While there are many aspects of the living situation that are different, the setup of my apartment is standard compared to my apartment back home. It has 2 bedrooms, a common area, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It is slightly small but has all of the necessities a person needs.

Each room has 2 people living in it. Each person gets their own desk and dresser as well!

There are several differences in appliances and utilities in Florence, or the lack thereof. The first is that there is no clothes dryer. We have a drying rack and lines outside our rooms to hang up our clothes for us to dry. I was slightly concerned before coming to Florence about how this would work or if it would ruin my clothes. However, after washing and drying my clothes for the first time I realized it is not as big of a deal as I thought.

Rachel Epp is an official CAPA vlogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Global Business major at  Cedarville University, she is studying abroad in Shanghai this semester.

In this week's post, Rachel describes 3 interesting places she saw and learned more about as she spent time in downtown Shanghai.

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Thanks, Rachel!

Rachel's journey continues every Tuesday so stay tuned.

Genevieve Rice is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. An English Literature major at Anderson University, she is studying abroad in London this semester.

In this week's post, Genevieve reveals her thoughts and expectations surrounding her fall semester abroad in London, along with the growth she anticipates for herself.

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I always loved plane rides. Growing up, I was always so excited for every trip because of the unique feeling of whizzing through the air at immense speeds. However, as I have grown older, I have learned to like them for a different reason. Airplane rides are a guaranteed time to simply sit in one’s own thoughts and process what is coming and what has been left behind. After a while, I always get bored of the movies or my book, or even of listening to music, so I just sit and think. I ended one of these amazing processing times on my flights to London a few days ago. I thought about what I had left behind this semester, all of the things that I will be missing at my university.

I thought about my family and how they will have changed by the time I come back. I thought about my friends that the fun memories that they will make. I know from experience that life will continue on back home even when I am not there, so when I return, things will be different and so will I. I also thought about how that is not necessarily a bad thing. I know that it is a little early in the semester to be thinking about going back home, but I like to think ahead. This means that I also like to think about the amazing things that I am going to see this semester, too.

Amaia Rioseco is an official CAPA vlogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Visual Media Arts major at Emerson College, she is studying abroad in Barcelona this semester.

In this week's vlog, Amaia takes us along on CAPA Barcelona's orientation with her classmates as they tour the city together.

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Thanks, Amaia!

Amaia's journey continues every Monday so stay tuned.

Ellen Anderson is an official CAPA vlogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Child Psychology major at  University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, she is studying abroad in London this semester.

In this week's post, Ellen shows us around her study abroad accommodations and introduces us to her roommates in London.

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Thanks, Ellen!

Ellen's journey continues every Wednesday so stay tuned.

Christopher Halka is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing his story in weekly posts on CAPA World. An Accounting major at Siena College, he is studying abroad in London this semester.

In this week's post, Christopher reveals his first impressions of London and how he stumbled upon the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during a casual stroll.

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I embarked for my semester-long journey on the evening of September 4th. Upon my arrival into Heathrow Airport the next day, I found myself enjoying a cup of tea at Costa Coffee when I was warmly greeted into the United Kingdom by the Heathrow Baggage Claims Staff. They performed a choreographed dance demonstrating proper airport etiquette to ABBA’s Dancing Queen. After enjoying a good laugh from the performance, I instantly started to feel more comfortable amongst my surroundings. I then took the lift down to the Underground platform.

My first experience getting on the tube during the early morning commute felt a lot like I was a sardine stuck inside a tin can. However coming from New York City, I have dealt with this same scenario on many occasions. After getting off at Earl’s Court Station, I was then dealt with the next task of finding my way to my new flat. It was in this moment that I had my first experience of culture shock. 

Jessica Kisluk is an official CAPA blogger for fall 2018, sharing her story in weekly posts on CAPA World. A Broadcasting and Mass Communication major at  SUNY Oswego, she is studying abroad in Dublin this semester.

In this week's post, Jessica learns about the culture in Ireland and experiences the new cultural insights and differences firsthand.

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The day of arrival was honestly one of the longest days of my life. I spent over 24 hours awake, as I did not sleep on the plane, and did not have a chance to take a short nap until after the long process. That night, I got a long 12 hours of sleep and I felt like a new person.

Received my Landing Pack with information for the week.

Tuesday included a lot of valuable information about classes, the university, and cultural norms. At our CAPA orientation, Dr. Darren Kelly explained to the group that grading in Ireland is a little bit different. The highest score you can get is a 70, and a 40 is a passing grade. We were also told that if a professor says that certain things are required, it is probably the bare minimum to pass the class, and not what is required to get an ‘A’ grade. Classes are not selected months before as it is done in the United States—they are selected within the first two weeks of the semester, which may cause some people to be anxious. This was important information that would help the American students from confusion over the course of the semester.